The 1971 Orioles and the 1920 White Sox were the only major league teams in the modern era to have 4 20-game winners on their pitching staffs. For the O’s, they were Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, and Pat Dobson, and for the Chisox, they were Urban “Red” Faber, Eddie Cicotte, Claude “Lefty” Williams, and Dickey Kerr.
During the latter half of his career, Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer also gained fame for appearing in a long-running series of ads for Jockey men’s underwear, usually appearing wearing only a pair of Jockey briefs.
Spoilering just in case a picture of a handsome guy in briefs is NSFW at your location 
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No thanks, I really don’t need (nor do I want) to see Jim Palmer in Jockey tighty-whities! But I’ll admit, he was a handsome guy with a nice smile.
In play:
On 26 Sep 1971, Jim Palmer won his 20th game pitching for the Orioles that season. The Orioles had a stellar pitching staff, and Palmer was the fourth Orioles starter to win his 20th game. For that 1971 season, Palmer ended up with 20-10 record and a 2.71 earned run average, while Dave McNally went 21-5 with a 2.89, Mike Cuellar went 20-9 with a 3.08 and Pat Dobson finished 20-8 with a 2.90. After beating the A’s in the playoffs, the Orioles lost a heartbreaking seven-game World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates, led by superstar Roberto Clemente.
That 1971 Orioles pitching staff was the first since the 1920 Chicago White Sox to field four 20-game winners.
None of the Orioles 20-game winners won the 1971 American League Cy Young award. That honor, well deserved, went to Vida Blue of the Oakland A’s.
Blue won 24 games that year and only lost 8. He had an ERA of 1.82. He started 29 games and completed 24, with 8 shutouts.
Certainly one of the better years by a starting pitcher in recent history.
Vida Blue was the first pitcher to start an All-Star game for both leagues. It’s been done since, but never had been before.
Vida Samadzai is an Afghan-American actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was Miss Afghanistan in 2003. As the first Afghan woman to participate in an international beauty pageant since 1974, her appearance in a red bikini in the 2003 edition of Miss Earth pageant created controversy in her native country.
In high school, Vida Blue was a standout quarterback and pitcher in Mansfield LA.
In 1970 as a 20 year old MLB rookie, shortly after being called up from the minors, Blue threw a no-hitter against the soon-to-be American League Western Division champion Minnesota Twins. Ten days earlier, he had thrown a one-hitter against the Kansas City Royals in a 3-0 shutout victory.
Labatt Blue is one of the top-selling lagers in Canada. It got its nickname from its association with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. [spit]
Baseball historian Bill James cited Vida Blue as being the hardest-throwing lefty pitcher, and the hardest thrower of his era, behind only Nolan Ryan.
Dutch group Shocking Blue’s 1970’s recording of musician Robbie Van Leeuwen’s song “Venus” went to #1 in nine countries, and Bananarama returned the song to number one in seven countries in 1986.
The Billboard Hot 100 premiered on August 4, 1958. The first number one song of this chart was “Poor Little Fool” by Ricky Nelson. As of this week, the Hot 100 has had 1,080 different number one hits.
Ricky Nelson wrote the song “Garden Party” after being booed at a concert he gave later in his career at Madison Square Garden. His look and his music had changed dramatically and the audience apparently didn’t like it. Or at least, that’s how Nelson interpreted what was going on. “Garden Party” was a big hit for him.
New Jersey, the “Garden State”, is a leading producer of cranberries, blueberries and tomatoes.
Kellyanne Conway worked packing blueberries as a teenage and won the title of “Blueberry Princess” in an annual competition put on by the blueberry farms of New Jersey.
The USS Conway (DD-507) was a Fletcher-class destroyer in WWII named after Navy sailor William Conway who, with the Union during the Civil War, refused to lower the American flag from the Pensacola Navy Yard after its surrender. Said Conway to the Confederate Lieutenant who ordered him to lower the flag, “I have served under that flag for forty years, and I won’t do it.” Conway was cuffed and imprisoned.
USS Marvin Shields (FF-1066) was a Knox-class frigate of the US Navy. The ship was named after the only Seabee to receive the Medal of Honor. CM3 Marvin Glenn Shields was awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War.
The term ‘Seabee’ was derived from the first initials of Construction Battalions. Naval Construction Battalions were created as replacements for civilian construction companies working for the US Navy, after the US entered World War II. International law made it illegal for these civilians to resist enemy attack, as to do so would classify them as guerrillas, for which they could be executed. This is what happened when the Japanese invaded and conquered Wake Island on December 23, 1941.
Frederic Wake-Walker was a distinguished officer of the Royal Navy. He was the commanding officer of the naval forces at the evacuation of Dunkirk, and also became the officer commanding at the Battle of Denmark Strait, after Busmarck sank HMS Hood. He was criticised for breaking off the battle after the loss of Hood and shadowing Bismarck until the arrival of ships from the Home Fleet.
Earlier, during the inter-war period, Wake-Walker had been found liable by the Supreme Court of Canada for the collision in Montreal harbour between his ship, HMS Dragon, and a civilian vessel. On appeal, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council upheld the Supreme Court’s decision.
Bismarck is the capital of North Dakota, and yes, it’s named after Otto von Bismarck. The Northern Pacific Railway named it that in the hopes of attracting settlers and investment from among the many German immigrants in the Plains. Why they thought a political figure would be attractive to people who’s specifically left the guy behind, no one can say, but the year after they came up with the idea gold was discovered in the Black Hills and people flooded in.
The Northern Pacific Railway was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly forty million acres of land grants, which it used to raise money in Europe for construction. The NP merged with other lines in 1970 to form the Burlington Northern Railroad, which became BNSF Railway in 1996.